His wife Elizabeth, 63, admitted handling the stolen goods between the same dates.

The couple, of Agamemnon Road, West Hampstead, London, faced a third charge of possessing criminal property.

It was alleged that in December last year they were in possession of "£34,000 knowing or suspecting it to constitute a person's benefit from criminal conduct".

The pair denied the count but it was left to lie on file after the prosecution and defence teams agreed some of the money came from selling some of the stolen goods.

The couple were bailed for pre-sentencing reports to be prepared and they will return to court on May 10 to be sentenced.

The facts were not opened and it was not divulged what type of work Bowers did for the Met but prosecutor Benedict Fitzgerald said: "Those pleas are acceptable to the Crown on the understanding that a substantial portion of the money found at the premises, the home address of these two defendants, was representative of the benefit of selling the items that had been stolen."

He added: "The evidence establishes stealing over a prolonged period of time, both in terms of what was recovered and what can be proved to be stolen, which was obviously only a representative sample."

Judge Alistair McCreath told the couple that receiving bail was no indication of what their sentence would be.